EPILOGUE

Summary

The story returns to the viewpoint of the narrator rather than that of Conway's manuscript. He has met up again with Rutherford in Delhi, India. Rutherford has just returned from Kashgar. When they go to Rutherford's suite, the narrator notes immediately that Rutherford had gone in search of Conway. The trail ended somewhere in Upper Siam. Rutherford has come to the conclusion that Shangri-La lies somewhere inside the area of Baskul, Bangkok, Chung-Kiang and Kashgar. He never was able to enter Tibet, and he knows that Mallinson couldn't have just walked out, because the terrain was so formidable. He had met an American who had tried to cross the Kuen-Lun Mountains, but could not find a pass even though he knew there were passes there. Rutherford questioned the man about a cone-shaped mountain almost as high as the Himalayas. He said there was a legend about it, but he didn't really believe it. He also said there were plenty of lamaseries, but that the monks there were corrupt and dirty even though they appeared to have odd powers of bodily control.

The most interesting thing the American had to say was about the time he met a Chinese, being carried in a chair, who offered to be a guide to a nearby lamasery, but the American had refused. It is an interesting connection to Conway's experience, but both Rutherford and the narrator agree that they couldn't imagine how an expedition so well-equipped could have been held against their will like the Conway's group. Perhaps it is no connection to Shangri-La at all.

Rutherford finds out that the story of the plane Conway took from Baskul is true, but he couldn't trace the passengers. They had disappeared just as Conway had said. Rutherford had traced the German named Meister Conway mentioned who visited Tibet in 1887 and never came back. However, he was unable to find out anything about Perrault or Henschell. They both are confused by what happened to Conway after he left the valley with Mallinson and Lo-Tsen. They guess that some sort of tragedy must have happened: it seems obvious that Mallinson never made it to China, but how Conway made it to the nun's mission at Chung-Kiang is still unexplained. They can only conclude that he wandered there. When Rutherford questioned the nuns about Conway, one said that the doctor who had worked there told them he was brought there by a woman. Rutherford traced down the doctor who agreed that that's what happened, and that the woman who had brought him there was Chinese and had died of the fever not long after they arrived at the mission. The doctor further said that the Chinese woman was not young, but very, very old.

The narrator and Rutherford then discuss Conway and how the war had altered him, as well as the many mysteries of the Blue Moon. The narrator can only leave the story with a significant question: Do you think he will ever make it?

Notes

Like all epilogues, this one attempts to tie up any loose ends of the story. Rutherford had searched hard for Conway and found some pieces of information that seemed to corroborate Conway's story. He and the narrator can only surmise what happened to Mallinson, but learn from the doctor's story that the promise of Shangri-La is lost once a traveler leaves it: Lo-Tsen had grown old and lost her beauty. They both admire the character of Conway and their final thought indicates their hope that he will find the paradise he left once again.